Bell Hermit

What do you want, slave?

Hornet

Slave? I am a traveller, stranger, not a slave.

Grnk. Exactly what a slave would say. Begone!

What a persistent little worm you are. Amuse me then. Why did you cut those poor bugs from their comforting curse?

Hornet

There was old power in the creature that guided the thread, and a talent of Silk, now taken, that shall prove useful to me.

Hornet

That the town is freed and its service returned is a benefit too. I may ofttimes feel myself apart from these bugs, but even I recoil to see Silk strung in such sickening service.

Grnk. To free them was no favour. But the gathering of power... In that goal, we may understand each other some.

Hnff... So the slave comes seeking?

I’ve heard it. Wishing on a world cut free, yes? Along with my nephew up there. Sounds he’s sunk as simple as you.

Hornet

Will you not provide your aid, bug? This trap he plans requires power, and I suspect you’re hoarding more than most.

Oh no. I’ll give it. Not in the hope you’ll succeed... Bah! In that, there’s slim chance. I give just to see that restless energy unleashed.

So much soul, found and formed. Generations of it, all going to waste. Better it’s given a chance to blaze.

If you insist on surviving your infestation, seek the one exiled from Bellhart, little Yarnaby. She was chased out, high up into the moors, last I heard.

I’ll waste no more words on a slave. Begone.

Hff. The noise from above has returned, that pitiful clamour. The threads have been cut.

You... It was you who cut them. Do not deny it!

Hornet

Why should I deny it, sir? I defeated the cruel creature above the town, and awoke the old bell stilled by Silk. Are you displeased?

Displeased! If I breathe, if I live, I am displeased. Only the dead are satisfied.

You are a slave, and a nuisance... begone.

Hff. The noise from above has returned, that pitiful clamour. The threads have been cut.

You... It was you who cut them down. Do not deny it!

Hornet

Why should I deny it, sir? I severed the thread and defeated the creature guiding the curse upon the town. Are you displeased?

Displeased! If I breathe, if I live, I am displeased. Only the dead are satisfied.

You are a slave, and a nuisance... begone.

Those bugs, cowering in their gleaming bells. Grnk. They claim a common calling, to serve the pilgrims as they make their path upwards.

Such a crucial role they award themselves, surely worthy of praise!

A sweet lie, of course. They, like their predecessors, are simply too weak and fearful to venture any farther. A settlement born from indolence.

What’s this... twitching inside of you? A slave within a slave! Given over your shell to grow something greater?

Hornet

A parasite has made its home within me. It saps my energy, and I can not purge it with strength alone...

Grnk. Lie down and die then, for all I care. Allow that wriggling thing its chance at life.

Or else... hff. Go seek the one exiled from Bellhart, little Yarnaby. She was chased out, high up into the moors, last I heard.

My part’s been given, slave. We’ve no more need to speak.

Go and spin your spider’s web. Allow our kingdom’s restless soul its chance to blaze.

You bother me again? Begone, I said!

Hornet

I ask only if you know what has happened to the bugs above us. They hang trapped in a vast snare of thread.

Hff. Hardly surprising. That there’s the final fate for all in Pharloom. Just come seeking a little sooner for them above.

Surely, oh surely, you don’t imagine your own end will be different? All that hunger, and fear, and pride, filling your fragile heart. You too are bound to end ensnared!

Grnk! Begone. In Pharloom, only a fool believes themselves free.

You want to cut them down? Hff. Yes, you look cruel enough.

Once the strings are cut, pain will return to them. They will remember fear and longing.

What a choice you make for them! Such power you grant yourself!